Film Theory: Avatar and the Science of Waterbending (Avatar the Last Airbender)

You know I totally agree with the story of Avatar The Last Airbender. They do a great job of building a world that feels like really amazing characters that you really care about because they're well-rounded and likable, but you're really telling me that I'm supposed to take this like a six-legged flying bison. The beaver bear that simply flies in the least aerodynamic way possible weighs about 3,000 pounds and can somehow outmaneuver flaming, lightning, and lightning cannons. Well, yes, believe it or not. It's entirely possible using evidence of how things work in the program. Virtually everything we see done in the bending world is feasible using basic real-world scientific principles.

Which means the Avatar isn't just a mythical martial arts master. He also has a great project for a

science

fair. Hello Internet, welcome to Film Theory, the show that proves there's no age limit for Saturday morning cartoon addiction. So first of all, can I talk a little more about Appa from the outside? ? Sure, everyone's favorite sky bison may seem like one of the least realistic elements of Avatar, The Last Airbender, but his flight powers are actually possible and I demonstrated it in a series I did in association with Nickelodeon. Yeah, Nickelodeon, you know. The people who produce the show First of all, the show is called Speech Factor and it's basically

film

theory

with a little more

science

, some live action experiments focus on classic Nick shows like, hey, Arnold,

avatar

, Rugrats, Drake and Josh, you remember about a month. back when I did the Goo Lagoon SpongeBob SquarePants episode and I gave you a preview of what the show was going to be about and you all swore to me that even though I was spoiling some of the secrets, you would still go see the episode when you told it to you.

I said so that Nickelodeon would be really impressed with me and all of us theorists and how passionate we are as a community. Well, now is when I need you most. Now this is what I need you to do. Click on the top line of the description and binge-watch the first three episodes of Niche Factor in one about Spongebob Squarepants When I'm Hey Arnold and one about Avatar and Airbending and the Realities of Dad's Flight is available on Facebook right now But no Don't worry, you don't need a Facebook account See what it says if you have a Facebook account Please do me a favor and leave a comment saying how excited you are to see me work with Nickelodeon.

Okay, it's like a dream come true to be able to do something with them and me. I would love to do more to achieve this. I need to prove that people liked watching the show in the first place. So thank you very much in advance for doing that for me. It helps more than you imagine, but now ahead with a different version. but closely related episode Waterbending to me Avatar The Last Airbender is one of the most exciting fictional worlds ever created. He created a world with four main tribes, the Air Nomads, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the water tribes within each group.

For individuals with the power to manipulate. the given element air earth Water, these are our masters with bending being one part ancient martial art to one part naturally given skill, however throughout time there will always be one person who can master all four elements. That person is the

avatar

. Basically, the incarnation. From a great spirit of light who is tasked with maintaining all the elements and balance when the show begins, we meet Aang. A twelve or one hundred and twelve year old

airbender

who was just named as the next avatar? He's been told that the Fire Nation with all their firebenders have started roasting the other groups.

And now he only has a few months to master the four elements to save the world. No pressure there, right, and that was 12 years ago. The biggest thing I had to worry about was my build, boy, so I was a beep for years. I wanted to talk about the science behind some of these abilities with the recent announcement of the new version of Netflix's Avatar. Finally I have a good excuse because the best thing about the program is its logic. Sure, a lot of what we see on screen is magic, but it's magic that makes sense.

Highly advanced water benders can manipulate the human body because you know that the human body has a lot of water. Advanced earth benders can bend and warp metal due to mineral deposits hidden deep within the ore, but the skill progression shown in the show not only makes logical sense, it also makes scientific sense when you stop and you look at what exactly the voice actors can do. and I can't do it with their respective elements either, the magic of it all really comes down to each type of bending mastering control over a key scientific principle, so with four types, depending, I can theorize about what we have between now and when this new program comes out. to overcome all the science of these cool skills.

So today I'm tackling. What is literally the coolest pushup style ever? Waterbending and by cooler I mean temperature because we are dealing with ice and tribes found at the arctic poles. I'm not trying to pass any judgment here on specific types of bending. although we know that ground benders are objectively the best. So today's question is: how can you bend water like Katara simply using real-world science? Yes. Yes, let's get started. Now first, as we begin this epic multi-episode journey. Let me clarify a bit, obviously, I'm not claiming that the powers we see in Avatar, The Last Airbender are real or can be directly replicated through science.

The show clearly conveys bending as an art form. Science, an elementary manipulation is done through the mastery of the different martial arts. So, in that way, I am not trying to explain anyone's powers. Instead, I want to see the reality of Making Water Behave Like It Does in the Show. Based on the rules we see on the show and then talk about. the science that would theoretically make this happen What? The forces could cause the water to move like this or turn into ice or generate a spontaneous tidal wave. You could say that all this is just a

theory

.

But why would you use such a silly catchphrase to your credit that the show offers so much? The information on elemental and water bending gets some of the strongest evidence, for example, the show establishes early on that celestial forces have a huge impact on bending ability, especially when it comes to water and fire benders. . Early in the series we learned that the firebenders have been able to dominate all other nations because they diverted energy from Sozin's Comet, a fiery comet that passed by Earth and bestowed its flaming energy on the fire nation. Our hero Aang is forced to train as quickly as possible to acquire his avatar abilities because of Sozin's abilities.

The comet is on its return journey giving the Fire Nation so much power that not even the avatar will be able to stop. Similarly for the Water Tribe We learned that their powers are strongest during the full moon, waterbenders draw their power from the moon. is almost full tonight with Katara specifically noting that the Waterbenders' powers are stronger at night. I've always noticed that my Waterbending is stronger at night. We also learned that eclipses have the opposite effect on teachers. Both Firebenders and Waterbenders completely lose their abilities when the Sun or Moons eclipse respectively, just this.

The information alone gives us key information about the underlying science behind bending for firebenders. It would seem that solar radiation is playing a key role in their powers, as they lose them when blocked. But again, that's one theory for another. day for water benders a lunar eclipse will block their powers completely. Now the moon does not emit any type of solar radiation per se, but it does exert another important force on Earth: gravity. The moon's gravity is, in fact, what causes all the water on Earth. Does it curve first in the form of tides and ocean currents, all caused by water? sloshing across the face of the earth The Moon's gravity on one side literally pushes it outwards and then it sloshes over to the other side of the earth Effectively creating these bulges on both sides of the world where high tides are all the water in the half is being sucked in creating low tides and the show absolutely knows this connection exists and does a very good job of reflecting it as a basic property of water bending from the very first episodes.

Aang and Katara practice pushing and pulling bending creating tides It's literally the first

waterbending

move where bang learns that they are doing the tides of the moon to create waves and they use this basic skill a lot to drag people into the sea or not to be Commanders, all starting with the fundamental idea that the tides are controlled by the gravity of the Moon. So that's great and all, but I hear you ask what about this or this or this? Well, as good a start as gravity, as we know things are going to start to get a little complicated as we dip our toes into advanced water.

Bending over from the water, whipped water shield, ice bullet and a good puddle in the face. This level of precision. makes our explanation of gravity seem a little ridiculous. I laugh at gravity all the time. Gravity, so scientifically there has to be something else layered here. That will allow teachers to control the water more directly. The good news for all you aspiring avatars is that, in theory, it is possible to bend water, not with Tai Chi or handshakes or various dances, but with the powers of electromagnetism most of us are now aware. That water is electrically conductive, but not necessarily for the reasons we expect.

It is not the water itself. That is electrically conductive. In reality, they are the salts that exist inside the water anyway, although the reason you won't swim in a thunderstorm or your hair in a bathtub is because the salts inside the water are super conductive and lightning or lightning strikes. electricity flow. of your wall socket loves to run through it and as a result, it will also run through you if you are swimming in it. But electrically charging that water won't do anything to make it move, it just makes it more dangerous, which is why bending also requires the magnetic part of electromagnetism.

If someone asked you if water was magnetic, most of us would say no, it doesn't contain any type of iron or metal, it doesn't really seem to do anything when I shake my magnet, that's what. not entirely correct. The truth is that water is actually diamagnetic, meaning that any magnetic field, whether positively or negatively charged, will actually repel water. So if you place a magnet near some water, you will see the water bend slightly due to the magnet moving away from the water. magnetic field now in this experiment We have two syringes that are filled with equal amounts of water attached to a string that allows them to rotate freely, right?

So if we present one of the sides with a magnetic field, what we should see is the water starting to move away. From these magnets, in turn, the syringes will begin to rotate away from that magnetic field. This is due to the diamagnetic properties of water, where water is not magnetic, it actually rejects magnetism and therefore wants to move away from it. And that's exactly what we see happening here, right where the syringes were. Level 2, the camera at a certain point, now you start to see them slowly moving away. Rotating away from the magnetic field that I'm holding them to on this side.

And now if we present it in the opposite direction, you can see that now the syringes are moving in the opposite direction. This is to show that, in fact, it is the magnetic field that causes this rotation and nothing else. This is literally water bent at a microscopic level where magnetic fields push the water atoms into the syringe. So in theory, a waterbender could do exactly the same thing by creating electromagnetic fields that are strong enough to push water. away from themselves Creating all the amazingly cool moves you see them do on the show science and magic and bending now, if you're a physicist this explanation will be pretty simplistic but for our purposes It actually explains a lot of things that As seen in the series, the Waterbenders rarely touch water while bending it, which makes sense because water is always repelled by them and the intricate curves and shapes you see come from the electric field that is applied to the water.

Water molecules generally have a small charge. negative electrical field, so by creating small electric fields that are also negative because like charges repel each other, waterbenders could theoretically redirect the flow of water midstream by creating whirlpools. Throw bubbles, whatever you want. Which is exactly whatWatch them create with more and more precision throughout the show. Early water bending movements focus on establishing an electromagnetic field for simple shapes. But once the bender learned to control the fields more precisely, it's only a matter of time before the water passes through him. with the best of them. We also know that we are dealing specifically with electromagnetism and not simply magnetism from an unlikely source.

The Fire Nation, like water and firebenders, are related by their dependence on objects in outer space. They are also linked by their manipulation of electricity and charged particles. in the season 1 episode, The Storm. We see our first instance of lightning redirection when Uncle Iroh saves Zuko's ship from an electrical shock. We later discover that he learned this ability by studying the philosophy of Waterbending, that is, studying electromagnetic fields that could be created in the air to Repel charged lightning particles away from their targets. The technique I am about to teach you is one of them. I learned by studying the Waterbenders, I mean.

He says it's kind of like Tai Chi philosophy, but we all know the truth. We then see many other Firebenders use this technique to redirect or create lightning in their hands. But it's all based on the principle of generating an electrical current and directing it through the air in theory, in

film

theory, this same principle in reality. explains some of the Coup Year aspects and more of McCobb's aspects of

waterbending

, including the vine bending we see in the Misty Swamp Tribe, human bending, and water purification. Plans and people are made up of a lot of all of which can be manipulated using electromagnetic fields which create a strong enough field and you can bend a vine by bending all the water inside it in the same way.

You can bend a person if all the water in their organs and bloodstream is drawn in one direction. We see that some select water benders even cause people to lose consciousness by bending water, presumably preventing the water that carries all the blood from reaching the brain. When it comes to other dark water control techniques, such as water purification? You know that although water is polar, many of its contaminants are not oils and dirt is made of carbon, which means they won't do much in an electromagnetic field. Therefore, water bender can direct water away from deep impurities. contaminate it and make it drinkable So electromagnetic manipulation explains a lot of water bending techniques, but it still leaves us with a big missing piece that I can't make that just melt away.

Phase Changes Most advanced water bending techniques involve significant phase changes between states of water. of matter Particularly liquid and solid ice to water and vice versa The ice sled the ice ramp marks the exercises even the failed steps that involve stepping on small ice rods All are valid water master techniques that are not explained purely by electromagnetic fields Or is it the techniques? The topics we have covered involve manipulating the movement of large groups of water molecules, puddles, lakes, ocean waves. But what if we wanted to manipulate motion on a smaller scale in the chemistry and physics you know?

Thermodynamics and you discover that on the molecular scale. The idea of ​​temperature is actually a measure of the motion of fast-moving molecules. Well, we realize that no matter how hot the bowl of soup you have is, there is no chemical difference between whether it is hot or cold. It's just that the molecules in your hot soup move around a lot. and in your cold soup They are a little slow. The same goes for ice and water. Liquid water. Molecules move and flow and move and have a good water molecule time. But the ice molecules are locked together in a crystal lattice structure as you see. in the snowflakes There's still a little bit of movement there.

As if they can move a little in their structure, but the movement is not much less than in a liquid or gas phase. We know that advanced water bender has the ability to turn water into liquid ice. - What do they really do in those? For example, how small a scale it is that relates water molecules to the slowing down of their individual movements or, in physical terms, to their kinetic energy as they lose motion. They lose energy. They become colder if the bender is able to slow down the individual molecules enough. They will begin to join together into that crystalline structure.

We call it ice, the key is using those same electromagnetic fields to slow the movement of individual molecules and lock them in place. So there you have it, if we want to be waterbenders, all that really stands in our way is the ability to create concentrates. magnetic fields at will by waving his arms and then tying that ability to an overwhelming dependence on the gravitational forces generated by the moon. Don't worry, right? Maybe one of the other bending skills is a little easier for us to master. I mean, even Avatar Roku said that waterbending was especially challenging for him.

And like I said, if you want more avatar science right now and you haven't already, please. go watch my Nixon Factor episode about Oppa Airbending's flight and then watch the one about SpongeBob's underwater bonfires, you can have fire underwater. In fact, I show it in the episode and finally end it with a discussion of Hello, Arnold. pigeon, man All three episodes are available right now. More are on the way every Tuesday for the next two weeks. The link is below. And like I said, watching that series really helps me. Hell, maybe you want to do more with me. , which would be great to work alongside the people who created my childhood, it's really amazing.

So thank you for your support. The link is where the arrows point down in the description, and speaking of more episodes, be sure to ring the bell to subscribe to Film Theory because you can bet I'll be talking about more flexing soon. The science behind the bending of the Earth in particular is very interesting. And again totally rooted in real life science. Oh, route it, so if you want to watch that episode, be sure to hit that subscribe button and let me know in the comments that you're here for the Ness avatar now, excuse me. October begins to approach.

You've got to start accumulating something spooky around here.